“Atlanta,” Beckett says.
I let out a breath. Thank god for them. They may have pissed me off and betrayed us before, but damn do they know how to do their jobs when we need them to.
I look to Liesel, who looks to be near tears at their answers. The question is, who do we go with? There are only two of us, and we have three kids to save. How do we choose?
“Good. Get a team and plan together to go with you. I want each of you to have a detailed plan in half an hour, then we move.”
I storm out onto the back deck, suddenly needing air to breathe as I realize I’m one person, and I can’t go after three kids myself at the same time. I’m not superman. I have to trust that others can do their jobs.
I hear the sliding door open and then close, and I know Liesel is standing out on the deck with me.
“How do we decide?” I ask her.
She steps next to me and then grips the railing like her life depends on it. She doesn’t answer right away. How could she? How do you choose between children?
“We don’t,” she finally says.
“What?”
“We let our friends go. We let them do their best. And then we go help the one who fails.”
The ocean crashes hard against the shoreline at her words. We both stare out at the sea, knowing that’s the best plan. But it feels impossible to stay put when my kids are in danger.
My kids.
They will always be my kids. I don’t care whose blood runs through their veins—they are mine. Just like the woman to my left, who is wearing my ring. She may have only married me because of a stupid quest, but I’m not giving her up.
I do know something that I can do while we wait to figure out which rescue team is going to need our help the most. I dig into my pocket and pull out the envelope that has the next task in it. I have to complete this task before we can head to Tokyo to get the final task and the location of the treasure. A treasure we can use to get the kids back if all else fails.
I open the envelop and pull out the note. Liesel notices me, but she’s content to just stare at the ocean.
I read the note.
Make her fall in love with you so deeply that nothing can pull you apart.
I read the words twice through, trying to ensure that I’m reading them correctly. Make my wife fall in love with me. I’m pretty sure she already is, even though she won’t admit it. She won’t say the damn words, not that I have either.
How do I prove we love each other so much that nothing will pull us apart? Especially if we won’t even say the words?
I’ve spent my entire life hating her, and she hating me. Hating her is easier, but you can’t hate someone without first loving them. The hate was more because we couldn’t be together than because we truly hated each other.
This should be an easy task, but it won’t be for so many reasons. Liesel is stubborn, and for whatever reason, she’s scared to love me and for me to love her. She won’t admit to loving me easily. Not only do I have to get her to admit it, but I have to be able to prove it to a stranger when we go to collect the next clue.
I fiddle with the edge of the crisp white paper before it slips through my hands. It dances high in the sky as the wind takes hold of it before dipping into the ocean.
Liesel and I both watch the piece of paper disappear into the water. Liesel could just as easily slip through my fingers.
Getting Liesel to truly love me is going to take everything I have. But that was my plan anyway from the second I said I do. There is no going back, not after she’s mine. Fuck the consequences.
No—there are no consequences of her loving me. If Liesel gives me all of her love, I will protect it with everything I have. I will give her the world. I will kill any man or woman who stands against her. Being loved by her would be one of the greatest honors of my life.
I just can’t love her in return. Not openly, not in the way she deserves.
The note didn’t say that I need to love her, though. It just said that she needs to love me.
I can make her fall in love with me so hard that nothing will break us up. We can be a family once we get the kids back, along with the new edition that I feel in her womb.
“Do you know what you need to do?” Liesel asks, still not looking at me.